Daily News Channel
Thirteen-year-old Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, spelled "laodicean," Thursday night to take top honors in the 82nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. The eighth-grader won $40,000 in cash and prizes for nailing the final word. Pronounced lay-odd-uh-see-an, the word means lukewarm or indifferent, particularly in matters of politics or religion
A 23-year-old Norwegian violinist, Alexander Rybak, won the Eurovision song contest with an upbeat ballad that got the most votes in the history of one of the world’s most watched television shows. On Saturday night Rybak beat out contestants from 42 countries, with singers from Iceland and Azerbaijan taking distant second and third places. The boyish Rybak — who performed a self-composed tune, “Fairytale,” with some deft dance steps and a smile plastered on his face — won with 387 points, the most in the contest’s 53-year history, organizers said